Add the ability to scale the canvas beyond it's archaic 227 inch limits.

[MixManSC1]

Make working with large format designs at 1:1 possible. In other words add a size function for the canvas to be scaled beyond 227 inches. Of course this would allow scaling the artboards beyond that size as well. Not sure if there woudl be implications to allowing it to be unlimited. Us large format print and design companies are annoyed at this daily. Vehicle template packages are at 1/20th scale. Finish the design for the 54 foot trailer and ready to print, scale 2000%. Nope sorry, cant do that. Export the file and open it in some other vector app for the final scaling then export from that to the RIP.

Was really hoping to see this in CS6. Sadly not happening.

[aTomician]

Bobby, I think the golden egg would be to choose the canvas size.  That way, if I was working on a small set of icons, I would only need a canvas size of a few hundred pixels that contains the miniature artboards that I need.  If I'm working on a signwriting project for the side of a 40 ft shipping container, I could create a canvas accordingly. 

This also means that if I'm working on a small project, I select a small canvas, and it will actually make my PC run faster because of the reduced processing.

The way I visualize a larger project working is that when you create a canvas over a certain size, you get a popup saying that the size of the canvas may reduce the stability of the program.  It should then warn you to only continue if your laptop is above a certain specification.  That way, users do it at their own risk, but any professional graphic designer should have a computer powerful enough to cope with the extra processing, if not then they can expect to have problems.

That way, you get the best of both worlds...  get your cake and eat it with a cherry on top.

[Bobby Henderson]

Illustrator already gives a user a fair amount of flexibility in choosing canvas sizes in six different units of measurement, including pixels. But canvas sizes can go only so big.

I wish Adobe Illustrator would provide more flexibility on document raster effects settings. If Adobe can move Illustrator beyond its current 227" X 227" canvas size limit the raster effects setting will become more important. It's already not difficult to crash Illustrator if a decent sized layout is loaded with lots of live effects rendered under a medium or high raster effects setting.

A beastly computer will get a user only so far. It won't make an application pushed to or beyond its mathematical limits crash proof. The instability I spoke of earlier regarding sign making applications like Flexi and CASmate had more to do with how the application was engineered. Even simple layouts on canvas sizes larger than 100' or 200' could get dicey on a well configured desktop computer. People believe vector-based artwork translates to infinite scaling but that's not really the case. There will be trade-offs with implementing a larger maximum canvas size.

As it stands, there are other limitations that will frustrate users. I do a lot of large scale design work in CorelDRAW. But I often have to convert all my type to outlines on large designs due to Corel's 3000 point maximum for text objects.

[rachellet80063497]

For what it's worth Adobe, can I add my preference for a larger canvas.

While I agree that in most cases of signwriting/large-format-printing, just scaling up a vector image when you go to print is the preferable way to go.

But what happens when the smallest font size you can get is 4pt and you need smaller in order for it to scale up to the correct size. You might incorrectly assume that there is a cut off of point sizes for billboards, but this doesn't account for all the various circumstances where small print is required. I have a long narrow piece of artwork - 1500cm. If I reduce this down to 227cm, ie the longest artboard I can get, then my artboard width becomes very narrow and I can't get the point size for fonts small enough for some of the "legalise small-print"  When I enlarge 4pt type, it ends up too big compared with the rest of the layout.  I'm going to have to create it in several pieces and stitch it together later, hoping that it matches up right, which will mean cropping vector diagrams in weird places. Which means there is big chance that a path point or curve may move slightly.

Frustrated.

[SJRiegel]

rachellet80063497  wrote

But what happens when the smallest font size you can get is 4pt

Was that true with older versions of Illustrator? I have CC2017, and I can set text as small as 0.1 pt.

[rachellet80063497]

Oh yeah - my bad. I have latest versions of Adobe Suite on Mac and just realised you are right. Maybe it was a preconceived idea that I couldn’t go below 4pt from  older versions or other applications. Thx for updating me. 

Still think either a larger art board (love the art boards btw) or an automatic scale rule would be ideal. Trying to work out conversions slows work speed considerably and encourages errors.

[Doug A Roberts]

For any future finders of this thread, please post and add your vote here instead:

Remove canvas size limit – Adobe Illustrator Feedback

This site is one the Illustrator developers actually read.

[MixManSC1]

Over 7 years later and this is still getting comments. Wowza!

I'm still using Illy CS6 and have just learned to live with it. I just do the final scaling in FlexiSign which accepts Illustrator files in their native format great (probably since Flexi licenses APPE - Adobe PDF Print Engine as the RIP).

[steves45061544]

I work in the sign industry and I regularly run into this problem. There seems to be no shortage of brilliant people who tell me to simply scale it. This might work for whatever they use illustrator for, but if you design large scale signage that must be machined from actual materials, then this advice is ignorant moot. Adobe doesn't seem to give a sh!t about the issue at all. The answer, unfortunately, is CorelDraw.

[Mirkwoood]

I work as a graphic designer and signmaker for a convention center in Australia. I have 0 control over what software I use, I can have Adobe or I can go and get another job.

The fact is that Illustrator is used all over the signage industry, and all over the sign industry this size limit is a problem. Scaling is not the solution for large scale signage, and for people who don't have control over what software they use, this sucks balls.

[Doug A Roberts]

I know it might seem like a black hole at the moment, but please keep up the pressure on the uservoice link:

Remove canvas size limit – Adobe Illustrator Feedback

If you post here, vote and post there too.

[Bobby Henderson]

steves45061544  wrote

I work in the sign industry and I regularly run into this problem. There seems to be no shortage of brilliant people who tell me to simply scale it. This might work for whatever they use illustrator for, but if you design large scale signage that must be machined from actual materials, then this advice is ignorant moot. Adobe doesn't seem to give a sh!t about the issue at all. The answer, unfortunately, is CorelDraw.

CorelDRAW has plenty of its own limitations, some of which I mentioned earlier. Add to that the user anger of what Corel did to the 2019 version (bugs they still haven't fixed with a service update, certain features strangely modified or stripped down compared to previous versions and a new Mac version with very little in the way of user customization options). PDF output is better versus that of CDR 2018, but that's about it. Corel's strange new "upgrades are ending" policy is the cherry on top of that s*** sundae.

Occasionally working in scale is a fact of life in sign design. I do create original designs at full size whenever possible. But I have to create separate client sketches at standard scales. Those separate files contain a lot of info. The full size file will only contain limited notes, including if certain elements are in a scale, be it 50% of actual size, 10% of actual size or something else like 1" = 1'. It's not difficult for a co-worker to bring that artwork into Flexi, EnRoute, Onyx, RasterLink or whatever and scale it up to full size. It's also not difficult to send artwork to service bureaus at a set scale. Every billboard layout I send off for grand format printing has to be at 1" = 1' scale. That's how the service bureau wants it. It's not that big a deal.

Working in scale for me is far less of an aggravation compared to other common problems in sign design, such as issues with customer provided artwork.